New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

An important factor to consider in developing educational computer games concerns whether there are any differences between learners in their acceptance of games for learning. In particular there is concern that the strong male preference found in playing games for leisure might also extend to games-based learning, making males more accepting of games in learning than females.There is clear evidence that the violent content and competitive structure of many games, gender stereotyping of female characters, the lack of opportunities for meaningful social interaction between game characters and the visual skills required to succeed in many games are features of games that make them less appealing to females than to males. Games manufacturers have responded to criticisms that games are male-oriented by developing games which aim to appeal to both males and females. However they have also acknowledged that boys and girls essentially prefer different types of game and they have also developed games specifically targeted at girls. These preferences in computer games have helped to confirm that males and females have different interests and preferences which are very deep rooted and emerge in infancy. Woudheusen has argued that these preferences are resistant to change as they probably reflect biologically influenced inclinations which are crystallised by socialisation processes.While it is acceptable to develop different games for leisure for boys and girls, with games for learning the situation is more complex. Schools and universities need to be inclusive and new learning methods and materials should aim to be gender neutral. However games for learning are being introduced into a prevailing motivational climate in schools which suits the more committed and methodical approach of girls. Many boys subscribe to the "Not cool to study" view and this has led to a culture of underachievement and "laddishness" amongst boys. It is tempting to argue that the easy engagement and the active, competitive style of interaction required in many computer games provides an ideal opportunity to re-engage many disengaged young men in learning.Ultimately it seems likely that the way forward is to develop a range of games for learning which are competitive or not and which include social interaction or not and to guide students in selecting games which are most congruent with their own individual preferences. As with any other educational intervention, games for learning will need to be evaluated to ensure that they help learning and that they do so in a way that as far as possible does not favour one group over another.

New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

This research was intended to explore the influence of video game experience on problem representation, efficiency of strategies, meta cognition, and quality of mental models during, solving the problems that encounter in a new game. This experiment asked all the participants to keep thinking aloud during the 20-minite process of playing, and their verbal report was analyzed to study the problem solving. The results indicate a significant influence of computer games on game players' performance in an unfamiliar game. The most frequently referred comment is direct strategy, next are game rules and cues, monitoring and game progress. Expert players performed better than novice players on problem representation, efficiency of strategies, and meta cognition.

New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

In this paper we present a computer-supported simulation game intended for teaching the planning aspects of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). The game deals with product lifecycle planning dynamics in the Engineer-To-Order (ETO) industry. The ETO environment that serves as the Working case allows the eliciting of important PLM concepts: unified product development multiproject planning and manufacturing planning, links between PLM software and ERP systems, and emphasis on the PLM holistic approach. The game is designed as a series of group sessions in which the different planning decisions appear progressively so that in the last session a complete lifecycle planning problem is completed The sessions act as a series of practical cases encouraging group discussions. The computer system consists of two main components: a discrete event simulator and a planning decision supper system. The simulator guides the game and stochastically generates the different events that cause the need for planning decisions in the working case. The planning decision support system makes it possible to emulate the resolution of the day-to-day tasks.

New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

Background: Video games have become extensively integrated into popular culture. Anecdotal observations of young surgeons suggest that video game play contributes to performance excellence in laparoscopic surgery. Training benefits for surgeons who play video games should be quantifiable. Hypothesis: There is a potential link between video game play and laparoscopic surgical skill and suturing. Design: Cross-sectional analysis of the performance of surgical residents and attending physicians participating in the Rosser Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills and Suturing Program (Top Gun). Three different video game exercises were performed, and surveys were completed to assess past experience with video games and current level of play, and each subject's level of surgical training, number of laparoscopic cases performed, and number of years in medical practice. Setting: Academic medical center and surgical training program. Participants: Thirty-three residents and attending physicians participating in Top Gun from May 10 to August 24, 2002. Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome measures were compared between participants' laparoscopic skills and suturing capability, video game scores, and video game experience. Results: Past video game play in excess of 3 h/wk correlated with 37% fewer errors (P < .02) and 27% faster completion (P < .03). Overall Top Gun score (time and errors) was 33% better (P < .005) for video game players and 42% better (P <. 0 1) if they played more than 3 h/wk. Current video game players made 32% fewer errors (P = .04), performed 24% faster (P < .04), and scored 26% better overall (time and errors) (P < .005) than their non-playing colleagues. When comparing demonstrated video gaming skills, those in the top tertile made 47% fewer errors, performed 39% faster, and scored 41% better (P < .001 for all) on the overall Top Gun score. Regression analysis also indicated that video game skill and past video game experience are significant predictors of demonstrated laparoscopic skills. Conclusions: Video game skill correlates with laparoscopic surgical skills. Training curricula that include video games may help thin the technical interface between surgeons and screen-mediated applications, such as laparoscopic surgery. Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons.

New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

Visuospatial abilities have been demonstrated to predict the performance of medical students in simulated endoscopy. However, little has been reported whether differences in visuospatial abilities influence the performance of senior endoscopists or whether their vast endoscopy experience reduces the importance of these abilities. Eleven senior endoscopists were included in our study. Before the simulated endoscopies in GI Mentor II. (gastroscopy: case 3, module 1 and colonoscopy: case 3, module 1), the endoscopists; performed three visuospatial tests: (1) pictorial surface orientation (PicSOr), (2) card rotation, and (3) cube comparison tests that monitor the ability of the tested person to re-create a three-dimensional image from a two-dimensional presentation as well as mentally manipulate that re-created image. The results of the visuospatial tests were cot-related to the performance parameters of the virtual-reality endoscopy simulator. The percent of time spent with clear view in the simulated colonoscopy correlated well with the performance in the visuospatial PicSOr (r = -0.75, P = 0.01), card rotation (r = 0.75, P = 0.01), and cube comparison (r = 0.79, P = 0.004) tests. The endoscopists who performed better in the visuospatial tests also were better at maintaining visualization of the colon lumen. Those who performed better in the PicSOr test formed fewer loops during colonoscopy (r = 0.60, P = 0.05). In the technically less demanding simulated gastroscopy, there were no Such correlations. The visuospatial tests performed better in endoscopists not playing computer games. Good visuospatial ability correlates significantly with the performance of experienced endoscopists in a technically demanding simulated colonoscopy, but not in the less demanding simulated gastroscopy.

New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

The present study examined the long-term effects of a computer intervention for the development of phonological awareness in Dutch kindergartners. Native Dutch and immigrant children worked with the software 15 min/week during one school year. Following a pretest - interim test - post-test - retention test design, the effects on rhyming, phonemic segmentation, auditory blending, and grapheme knowledge were assessed. The intervention showed significant immediate effects on rhyming and grapheme knowledge. The time spent on the computer games also correlated with the learning gains for the experimental group. In the first grade, retention effects were demonstrated after 4 months of formal reading education.

New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

Here, we demonstrate that action video game play enhances subjects' ability in two tasks thought to indicate the number of items that can be apprehended. Using an enumeration task, in which participants have to determine the number of quickly flashed squares, accuracy measures showed a near ceiling performance for low numerosities and a sharp drop in performance once a critical number of squares was reached. Importantly, this critical number was higher by about two items in video game players (VGPs) than in non-video game players (NVGPs). A following control study indicated that this improvement was not due to an enhanced ability to instantly apprehend the numerosity of the display, a process known as subitizing, but rather due to an enhancement in the slower more serial process of counting. To confirm that video game play facilitates the processing of multiple objects at once, we compared VGPs and NVGPs on the multiple object tracking task (MOT), which requires the allocation of attention to several items over time. VGPs were able to successfully track approximately two more items than NVGPs. Furthermore, NVGPs trained on an action video game established the causal effect of game playing in the enhanced performance on the two tasks. Together, these studies confirm the view that playing action video games enhances the number of objects that can be apprehended and suggest that this enhancement is mediated by changes in visual short-term memory skills.

New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

The ability to efficiently search the visual environment is a critical function of the visual system, and recent research has shown that experience playing action video games can influence visual selective attention. The present research examined the similarities and differences between video game players (VGPs) and non-video game players (NVGPs) in terms of the ability to inhibit attention from returning to previously attended locations, and the efficiency of visual search in easy and more demanding search environments. Both groups were equally good at inhibiting the return of attention to previously cued locations, although VGPs displayed overall faster reaction times to detect targets. VGPs also showed overall faster response time for easy and difficult visual search tasks compared to NVGPs, largely attributed to faster stimulus-response mapping. The findings suggest that relative to NVGPs, VGPs rely on similar types of visual processing strategies but possess faster stimulus-response mappings in visual attention tasks.